Mariska Veres wearing eyeliner to great effect
Eyeliners are one of those products that can complete or completely ruin a make-up look. They are available in such a wide range of types and styles – it’s a product worth experimenting with, anyone can wear them, I would say the only market not suited for them would be children.
Glitter eyeliners usually come in ‘different colours’ – this is actually what fools a lot of people, the base of most glitter liners is actually clear and the glitter has the pigment. What gives you the best colour pay off would be to apply it over a coloured eyeliner or eyeshadow and layer the product if you can. Urban Decay did make great thick glitter liners, however, they now test on animals so I’m on a new product search. Barry M also do great glitter eyeliners – the glitter is smaller in their tubes.
Urban Decay Glitter Eyeliners
Colour liquid liners are a fun, funky and fab product. They can be used to make the eyes pop or really going OTT. Usually the consistency is a thick liquid and is often quite difficult to remove – which is great in terms of staying power but if you make a mistake it might mess up your look, so keep the eyes closed for a few minutes after application so it doesn’t print on the eye lid.
Liquid eyeliners for ‘everyday’ use (black or brown) are made by possibly every make-up company out there and must be one of the most used make-up products ever! The brushes can range from foam tip to a brush but the best kind to use for most control would be a firm short foam tip or brush simply because with a longer brush you don’t have the same amount of control and it’s more likely for the brush to go all over the place.
Kohl pencil eyeliners (also known as Kajal) have a little longer staying power than the average black eyeliners. Some people in the Western world have concerns about it because of its lead content but Kohl pencils in the UK do not contain lead. If you purchase a kajal pencil from overseas it might contain lead, I have some from Pakistan and they are absolutely fine for me. This type is used a lot by males, and is most popular in the East and usage dates back to 3100 BC when one of its uses were as a protectant – either from the sun or the ‘evil eye’, rather than as a cosmetic item.
Stila Smudge Pot Gel Eyeliner
Gel liners are a great product if you have a steady hand. You apply the gel eye liner with a very dense angled short-haired brush, this gives you the most control. They don’t yet come in every colour under the sun but this is the most ideal product for black eye liner as it lasts a very long time, doesn’t smudge easily and has more control on application, it is also a little easier to remove if you make a mistake as opposed to using a thick liquid black eyeliner. Also like the coloured liquid eyeliners, you should ideally leave your eye closed to wait for it to dry otherwise it will print and smudge, and it is always harder to remove those mistakes, and just saves time to allow it to dry.
Pencil eyeliners were once the popular choice. I remember being at school and the girls solely using pencil. These are great to line the rim of the eyes. Use white or a pale flesh tone to open the eyes and make them look bigger or use black for the smouldering smokey look. These are also available in a wide range of colours but I feel if you want the best colour pay-off and longer wear you should use the liquid ones and stick to using pencil liners for the common colours like black, white and greys as I think it’s better to invest in really good coloured liquid eye-liners. I personally find that pencil colours are not as strong and do not last even half as long as liquid colour eyeliner.
I use all kinds of eyeliners and love to experiment with each type however I mainly use the gel eyeliners at the moment because they really last a lot longer and I can do detailed flicks better with these kinds.
Images reproduced from galanisrock-diaries.blogspot.com, temptalia.com and shopchicks.com